After some 2000 flights and enough flight time in space to comver the first 5 years of the RL space program, I've come to some ovservation and changes they cold make to actually improve both not only space, but also to impove the fact that space is going to be around for quite a long time (Sorry to all those folks out there who think TP's are going to come back, but unnless you got a lot of money (and i mean a lot!) to give to MA to convince them otherwise, the reality is this.. Space is here to stay. period..
Now what could they do to acutlly make space more enjoybal and to reduce camping (and force pirates to go actually hunting for players in space? Well it would take a lot less time than someof the suggestions pointed out by some people..
Let's face it Space is about 99.8 % PVP , the other 0.02% being the safe zons located around space stations around not only the planets but the neutral stations located around the board. So you're saying, "Well frankly I don';t like it, but the let me explain the first simple change that the planet partners could force onto MA and this would be a simple solution and whoould actually help more up anc coming "taxi drivers" to get into space a lot sooner.
Frist off, let's start off with a wider safety zone around each of the planeets.. Think of it like Territorial waters around any nation or country in the world that is bordered by an ocean.. (And yes the distances of each safe zone could be varried or even turned off.)
Now what would this do? It would allow players the first real step into space.. and the chance to explore all the way aorund the planet.. provided that the server the planet was on was reduced in size as to the entire pint (Reduce it by say 1/2 and you could actually have a safe buffer where people could come out, fly around the planet and explore.. that way it gets their confidence up and allows them to practice their piloting skills..
Also it would give the space piolots out there a larger area to park their ships around.. and thus reduce the lags that occurr around each station (that's the latency the original OP was talking about.. it's all these ships crammed into one timy area..
Second, let's talk about entry into space from teh surface of a planet, and not entry into a planet from space.. As has been noted before there are a lot of entry point onto a planet from space.. but in the cae of leaving a planet and entering into space, MA only has 1 entry poiint near the station.. and that's it..
This bottleneck is really an issue and helpe promote camping and reduced the fuel a pirate burns.. it also causes the latency that the OP mentions as we have a ton of ships circling a station that has a safe zone that is soo small. This gives the pirats the advantage, and makes the very fat and lazy...
But then space is supposed to be about the chase the thrill of being able to outwit an opponent and to stop them or to get away at any cost (Let's be honest, who hasn't seen the famous Star Wars Scene with Han, Luke, Princess Leia, Chewie, and the droids trying to get awy from teh Death Star? This is what space should be.. It should be a game of cunning and not people just hanging around a station hoping for a score from a foolish player..
(and yes I'm an equal opporitunity mocker here mocking those who are sitting around waiting and those who decide to take a risk only to lose it all and then repeat the process again and again, in order to save money..)
Now then if we had at least 8 entry points into space, those pirates could camp at any of them they could radio ahead to their friends deeper in space whoul could actually work with them.. but in stad since we know the addage no honor among thieves you never know who will backstab whom, or if the guy doing the running has friends waiting for him too.. IN short it would be compared to a starring match nad it woudl be who to blind first..
So already we ahve Enlarge the safe zones and putmultiple entry points into space..
Then let's throw in soething else to the mix.. Namely new vehicles and new weapons..
Look at the skills ever yone has and you know wht skill still has a 1 next to it? Particle Beamer weapon tech...and this one is perhaps the most underused skill (nesxt to teh one I'll mention next) and I say, why not have it where we can ount Particle beam weapons onto our vehicles.. Plasma cannons, or something..
sure the light lasers and the fire of hell and the rotary cannon are okay but we don't have any particle beam ewapoins that could be developed.. adn we got a lot of laser tech guys whoul would just love to jump at the chance to develop such weapons..
and then there's missiles.. and what would be the perfect item to use for thiose/ Explosieve projectiles (yep I'm refering to those items that have a 101 % MU .. and these items could be used to craft missiles (Toss into teh mix other items like targeting sensors or cerrtain components that don't get used that much and add in things that never getr used and suddenly you got a viable market for crafters and arm deaers..
But then let's move on to that second least likely used skill, namely that of the Decoy dispenser.. and this is where using the Decoys off the TT to craft Anti-missile systems would be pretty easy to do, and you'd get decoy dispenser skills if you had a misslile flyig in at you and you droped the appropriate missle defense system..
Sheild tech? Why not/ After all Neil stockton said that ship should have shields.. but then if they have sheil;ds why not have "Anti-Shield " Tech as well. a way to jam or bring ddown a shield so a bunch of fighers could come in and unleash a barrage of missiles agains their intended targert..
Min Jump engines? Think of them like the TP Chips you mount on our quad, oyou power them up using ME, and then you select your jump destinationand jump and just like the bigger warp ships if someone shoots you it breaks the jump lock and you ahve to repeat the process again.. (This would have a bigger impact on the ME market and force resellers to rethinktheir strategy about selling ME.. Instead of selling ME to people who use Buff and synch, they could consider this as another viable source of income.. while still peying on the poor defensless and clueless sweaters (Toldyou guys I'm an equal opporitunnity troll
!)
But let's move on to oterh things, Why not space miing? There's planet side miing and here it would cause a new way to think.. not only would the miner have to be looking around nervously, hoping some bad guy wouldn't jump out a stal hsi loot an claim, but he could walways call in a hunter or in this case a pirate hunter) to protect him... for a small price of course..
And of course, le't';s not forget the big one, Bounty Hunting.. PIrates and evil doers beware! Bounty Hunters have waffles!
But seriously imagine you're a pirate and you just killed someone and they tell a bounty hunter and your rep is shot.. Imagine having to be like that space miner you looted... Now as you drop off the loot on planet (if you dear set foot on one, you nervously look around finding a trader or a fence to get rid of the loot, and in te end you might get sniped.. fromteh balcony or a rooftop.. but then we alwys leave an out for them..
and that comes to teh big one.. the Universal auction.. Yes, Pirates you don't have to go down on planet, and in fact this iswhy MA could make a pirate base with a Universal auction, but then conversely there could be a universsal auction on all the neutral stations or stations that are under the proteciton of the Planet PArtner NPC Space patrol..
In short, if you're a pirate you don't have to worry about a bounty hunter getting into your stationto kill you but conversely you'd have to worry if you tired to dump your loot on a planetary station and hopoe you don't get shot down by the NPC space patrol or a pirate hunter/bounty hunter...
And then there's the taxi driver angle for osmoen fo the new players.. and this comes around full circle..
Want to make a little money taking a player up to the station to catch a flight on the a warp ship? grab your sliepnir and pilot up and down and charge for the cost of a thruster and maybe a bit of fuel.. and believe me youc an be however youw ant..
The point is this: Space at this point in time badly needs that overhaul, and probably there are some good ideas here tht MA could develop and use.. they could put more action and excitment into space they could also make it more interesting for both the new player and the old alike, allowing the new player to explore and the older player to protect, or to go out on their own and enjoy space for what it should be..
Right now it's a boring place, but change even these things around, and you get a really interesting and versatile game ..
Other than that, make space bigger. I hate hafing around inside of a box, and let us sexplore those strange new worlds.. who knows? Maybe you'll find Akbal Ximi, or maybe some lost world or figure out how to get deeper and rfurther into space.. Stop making space a box and make it truley 3 d.. give us hazards to pilot around and real space mobs.. after all we're paying the bucks, so my quesiton to MA is tis..
Where's teh Buck Rogers of this Universe?
That's all for now, and feel free to give feedback to all of this..
Until later, keep your eyes to the skies and keep looking up!
Benjamin Ben Coyote (Space Pilot Callgsign "Coyote"
a.k.a. "The Blind Sniper"